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Power 'R Ball Ammo Question

I recently purchased a Springfield Loaded Micro Compact (3 inch barrel)45acp as my ccw weapon. A friend of mine gave me a box of Glaser Power Ball 165 gr +P ammo for it. He said lighter grain bullets are more reliable in smaller pistols than the 230 gr. I am not sure if this is true or not, the main thing I would like to know does anyone use this Power Ball ammo? I remember it being a pretty hot seller when they first came out with it, years ago but I never bought any, and I also think there may be better options for it today. So what do any of you know about this ammo? and what grain would you recommend for a little 3 inch 1911? Thanks

Just to start, I wouldn't have a .45 acp that wouldn't run 230 grain rounds with complete reliability.

I don't buy or carry a .45 to use "velocity dependent" ammo. That is especially true in my short barreled guns. There are several decent 230gn HPs out there. Remember that clothing or other obstacles may rob the bullet of the precious velocity but few things will rob the bullet of weight.

Just to start, I wouldn't have a .45 acp that wouldn't run 230 grain rounds with complete reliability.

I don't buy or carry a .45 to use "velocity dependent" ammo. That is especially true in my short barreled guns. There are several decent 230gn HPs out there. Remember that clothing or other obstacles may rob the bullet of the precious velocity but few things will rob the bullet of weight.

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^^^^^^ This ! 100%

Plus to add.. I tried the power ball ammo, "for grins," out here on the ranch, just to play with a few and test them out. I took a shot at an old truck tail gate, and it (the powerball) blew up, exploded, like a dirt clod on a vault door ! (literally).

The rest of the box were crummy as well. Wouldn't have em,' see no need in them really.

a gun that doesnt function with the standard ammo for its caliber (230gr. fmj in this case) is not one id carry for defense.....unless it was specifically designed for a certain type of ammo like the LWS.

Pow'r Ball 165gr +P delivers a lot of energy and has very good expansion, but it falls short on penetration. The tests I have seen show about 9-10" of penetration in gel, which is not good. But some like it for its round-nose profile in guns that are finicky.

But lighter weight bullets sometimes have a shorter overall length which can lead to feeding problems. Sometimes shorter bullets can nosedive, especially in 1911s which have a steep feed ramp.

But if your defensive gun can't feed good hollow points like HSTs, Ranger-Ts or Gold Dots, then you may want to trade it in on a real gun.

CanyonMan, in all fairness, I saw a YouTube video where a guy took a shot at the side panel of a old pickup bed and the Pow'r Ball penetrated it with ease. The mushroomed bullet was found lying in the bed, so not much energy after it got through the two panels of that truck side panel. This is the opposite of your experience. But it only reinforces that most defensive ammo is usually not very consistent.

I wouldn't use power ball personally. If I had a pistol that was a finicky feeder first i would try Golden Saber or the Remington green and yellow box JHP. If it wouldn't feed those I'd try getting it fixed or trading it out.

OP you didn't say necessarily that it was a problem pistol, but micro .45s can be, so whatever it is you wind up using I'd test a bunch just to make sure.

WinterWizard: CanyonMan, in all fairness, I saw a YouTube video where a guy took a shot at the side panel of a old pickup bed and the Pow'r Ball penetrated it with ease. The mushroomed bullet was found lying in the bed, so not much energy after it got through the two panels of that truck side panel. This is the opposite of your experience. But it only reinforces that most defensive ammo is usually not very consistent.

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He (guy in the video) must have got a 'good box', or his truck bed was thin ! haha.

Hey, I understand amigo. I just know that the box 'I had' was junk. Maybe I got a dud box! ? ha.

But I think I'll just stick with quality JHP's in 230gr, and when I do use "230gr ball," I do like the RNFP's.

Here is plain old 45acp 230gr ball ammo on our old jeep bed.
This was out of a Kimber Stainless II Officers model.

Those Power Balls did fail to get any kind of good penetration, and they really fraged bag. That one on the "tailgate," i spoke about truly exploded just like a dirt clod. Man we laughed like crazy. We were only a few feet away, and I told my son, "let's see wht this stuff does.." Bang, "POW" = Explosion" into dust ! haha.

We were duckin and dodgin like a gerenade had been thrown at us. haha. Again. But so ended all curiosity I had about this bullet ! ha.

Those Power Balls did fail to get any kind of good penetration, and they really fraged bag. That one on the "tailgate," i spoke about truly exploded just like a dirt clod. Man we laughed like crazy. We were only a few feet away, and I told my son, "let's see wht this stuff does.." Bang, "POW" = Explosion" into dust ! haha.

We were duckin and dodgin like a gerenade had been thrown at us. haha. Again. But so ended all curiosity I had about this bullet ! ha.

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I am pretty sure that you have mistaken the Corbon Glaser Safety Slug for the Corbon Power 'R Ball. The Power 'R Ball will simply not &#8220;explode&#8221; as you describe, but the Glaser Safety Slug will.

I am pretty sure that you have mistaken the Corbon Glaser Safety Slug for the Corbon Power 'R Ball. The Power 'R Ball will simply not explode as you describe, but the Glaser Safety Slug will.

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Absolutely NO mistake whatsoever pard. "Me and Corbon spent a good deal of time" on the phone (back in the day) when this happened. I was testing these rds (in an informal way) but I know what I was shooting amigo !

Corbon POWERBALL..!

They acted just as I described. Corbon and i parted ways way back then... Ha.

Agreed, Safety Slugs do look like PowRballs in appearance, but they are the only rounds that would explode as you describe.

PowRballs are still lead bullets, and would not have had that effect.

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Well pard, since I ain't a liar, and it was me that was there, and NOT you, and since I was the one who spent time with Cobon over the issue. I guess you are in NO position to say.. "this would not have happened with PB ammo..." !

The Titanic was not supposed to sink, they said, "Impossible.' I believe we know how that one turned out.

The space shuttle was not supposed to explode, but it did.

And the Powerball Corbon ammo I fired into that tailgate blew up like a small dirt clod right in front of my face...

If you have been shooting long, and have fired very many rounds of ammo, and you may have, I don't know. Then you should know about anything can happen, and sometimes does.

Note that all PowRBall ammo is light for caliber, they don't make it in "normal" weights. Something like 100gr for 9mm, 165gr for .45 and 135gr for .40/10mm, either way the sectional density is very poor which one major reason why the penetration is poor. I admit I still have a box of this stuff lying around, but it's collecting dust.

Folks need to realize that Corbon's PB rounds are made for personal self-defense against humans, not for engaging in a running gun battles and shooting into vehicles. And if the average armed citizen has to shoot at someone ensconced inside a vehicle or behind a hard barrier, they've really screwed the pooch and are in a world of hurt.

Folks need to realize that Corbon's PB rounds are made for personal self-defense against humans, not for engaging in a running gun battles and shooting into vehicles. And if the average armed citizen has to shoot at someone ensconced inside a vehicle or behind a hard barrier, they've really screwed the pooch and are in a world of hurt.

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I am not clairvoyant so I can't tell what the "average" person would find to be the "perfect" round for their gunfight. I can't imagine predicting what would be perfect for me. If I had the power to know that in advance I would probably just stay in bed that day and avoid the whole thing.

To be useful a handgun round needs a bit of versatility and must sacrifice some of the extremes of specialization . I cannot see saddling my self a ballistic "one-trick-pony"

Just make sure you run plenty of ammo through that 3" 1911 before you depend on it for anything other than range duty. The micro 1911s have a bad reliability record. A round such as powerball is used to try and improve feeding reliability because of the nice round nose.

I would not use the powerball myself and look at it as another one of those gimmick rounds. If that little 1911 will not at least handle a quality JHP from Speer, Federal, Winchester and etc I wouldn't carry it.

I recently purchased a Springfield Loaded Micro Compact (3 inch barrel)45acp as my ccw weapon. A friend of mine gave me a box of Glaser Power Ball 165 gr +P ammo for it. He said lighter grain bullets are more reliable in smaller pistols than the 230 gr. I am not sure if this is true or not, the main thing I would like to know does anyone use this Power Ball ammo? I remember it being a pretty hot seller when they first came out with it, years ago but I never bought any, and I also think there may be better options for it today. So what do any of you know about this ammo? and what grain would you recommend for a little 3 inch 1911? Thanks

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I always thought power ball was designed for the older 1911's that were not throated and polished to take non-ball ammo. But me ignorant...

I run it in 9mm in my Springfield EMP. Eats it all day long. 10" not enough penetration...
Horse crap. Place a tape measure up against your chest and see where it would stop...past your heart or any other vital organ. I swear some of you guys can make up some retarded crap. Some ***** about too much penetration others not enough. Dear lord some of you are way out in left field. There are NO ABSOLUTE one shot stops in ANY handgun calliber. None of us have any control over an incident that has not taken place yet. Just make sure the firearm functions with whatever you choose. There are no magic bullets.
The single most widespread reliable ammo is ball ammo. Terminal ballistics suck compared to modern hollowpoint ammo. I see no problem punching a hole clean through both sides other than secondary impact. target gets to bleed from both sides. People die on a regular basis from ball ammo. The ammo in question will most likely perform just fine. I happen to think it is a bit genius. Reliability of ball ammo with some decent penetration and expansion. If you read enough of this crap every single manufacturer has a fail somewhere on you tube. It makes sense that everyone fails at some point. When making the bullets....you get the metallurgy just a little off and no expansion. The copper supplied to the manufacturer was out of speck by a couple percent. It's to hard. Is not pliable enough to open on impact. To soft...comes unglued on impact. People..just pick one that turns you on for some reason and run with it and make sure your firearm functions. It really is that easy.

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